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Pirelli promises to spice up Formula One racing season with new tires

Pirelli's goal is to have each Formula One team start the season on an even footing. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Pirelli on Wednesday gave some interesting details of its 2013 range of Formula One tires, which are intended to spice up the racing at the request of the FIA and teams.

The Italian company was criticized last year for being too conservative at timestoo conservative at times, especially in the latter half of the season.

Pirelli's aim is to have two pit stops per race, and a 0.5-second lap time difference through the course will encourage a wider variety of strategies. The tires are intended to have a faster warm-up and be faster over a lap by 0.5 second compared with 2012.

Teams were able to test the new construction during Friday practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix in November, but have yet to try the new range of compounds, which are softer across the board and have different working temperature ranges to last year. The hards also have a new color, with orange sidewalls introduced to make them stand out.

The sidewalls are softer, but the shoulders are stronger. Explaining the impact of the changes, Pirelli noted that “the effect of this is faster thermal degradation while the tire's peak performance window is extended. Traction is also improved, which translates into faster lap times, especially on the exit of corners and in combined traction areas, from braking to acceleration and vice versa.”

It's been known for a while that the 2013 tires are heavier, as the FIA had raised the car minimum weight limit by 2 kgs to compensate. In fact the fronts are 200 g apiece heavier, and the rears 700 g, compared with last year. They are also asymmetrical -- previous they could be used left or right, in either direction. Now they can only be used one way.

“The 2013 season continues the philosophy adopted by Pirelli last year in evolving the original 2011 range of Formula One tires,” said Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery.

“The goal is to continuously set new challenges for the drivers and to ensure that all the teams start the new season on a level playing field when it comes to the tires. Through accumulating more information with each grand prix last year, the teams eventually fully understood the tires, after a spectacular start with seven winners from the first seven races.

“The result at the end of the year was races with less competition and sometimes only one pit stop. This phenomenon was also observed in 2011, disappointing many fans and prompting some of the teams to ask us to continue developing our tires further this year, in order to provide a fresh challenge with something different.

“Our 2013 range of tires mixes up the cards once more to help overtaking, and ensure two to three pit stops per race.”

Pirelli will continue to use a 2010 Renault and drivers Lucas di Grassi and Jaime Alguersuari for its test program. Meanwhile Jean Alesi -- who used Pirellis in his stellar 1990 season with Tyrrell -- has become a brand ambassador.

The company noted today that while it had not yet agreed terms to continue into 2014 as sole supplier after its initial contract ends, it hoped to do so.